Notable Persons of the United Nations
There are a number of individuals, mostly human, who have had a significant impact on the course of human events in the Suns of Orion setting. This is an attempt to list and briefly describe them. Political/Civilian Individuals Duval, Elaine (2011-) Quite possibly the most powerful single human being in the universe, Elaine Duval combines one of the greatest intellects in recorded human history with an utterly amoral business sense and a firm convinction in humanity's ultimate place as the dominant species of the Orion Arm. Born to an affluent French family powerful in the European Union's unofficial governing circles, Elaine and her younger sister Marie seem destined to find places in the EU's growing technocratic elite. They had other ideas. After a plane crash left the two control over the family fortune, they invested heavily in VR and other emerging computer technologies, founding Duval Diversified Electronics in 2032, creating the wildly popular 'Midnight' modern horror virtual world franchise. Their fortunes redoubled, the Duval sisters would tap into the growing Humanity Supreme political movement for access to the highest quarters of power. Financial co-founders of the Asimov colony, they are rivals of the Mackenzie-Souris dynasty in every way imaginable. The Duvals certainly have more raw economic power, DDE operating independent 'free traders' that rival light cruisers in firepower, but Mackenzie and Souris have a defter hand in the halls of political power and more allies in the government. Rumors abound that Elaine is mentally unstable and actually believes she is the character she plays in the Midnight setting. Certainly she has had enough genetic and cybernetic therapy to rival her vampire alter-ego's raw abilities, but that is not uncommon among the economic and political elite of humanity in the early 23rd century. Certainly this delusion has not prevented her from operating humanity's largest megacorporation. Mackenzie, Nicholas (1998-) Nicholas Mackenzie is credited, not entirely inaccurately, as the first person to contact an extraterrestrial race. The reason he gets the credit is that the Peregrine engineering rating climbing out of her smoking, crashed survey ship tripped and nearly fell on him, and not his soon-to-be wife. A graduate student in theoretical physics at Stony Brook University, Mackenzie was enjoying a weekend off at Robert Moses State Park with friends when the Peregrine scout ship Outspread Wings brought the galaxy to humanity's doorstep. Having found himself involved with the Peregrine contact since the beginning and quite unintentionally something of a media star, Mackenzie found himself working with his professors in reverse engineering the advanced technologies recovered in the crash, often alongside the recovering Peregrine officers and ratings. Credited with the breakthrough that allowed human science to reverse the FTL drive of the scout ship, and sharing part of the resulting patent, by 2097 he found himself the CEO of one of the biggest starship contruction firms in human space. Mackenzie-Souris Industries would later diversify into a number of other fields and by the 23rd century was one of the top ten megacorporations in human controlled space. Married to Rachel Souris, Mackenzie has seven children born over the last two centuries, and a number of other descendents. Major sponsor of the Asimov colony on Clarke. Rival to Elaine Duval's Duval Diversified Interstellar. Mackenzie has generally avoided politics, but was a major advocate of the AI Equal Rights Act in the United States and its eventual adoption by the United Nations General Assembly.P Percival, Urush (2146?-) Urush Percival is the first Avalonian Grizzly to gain notable political attention outside of Terra Novan circles. A former military officer, Urush enlisted in 2165 in the Terra Novan Defense Forces and saw heavy action in the First Interstellar War. His ability to command respect from both human and Grizzly troops attracted a great deal of attention, and after the war Percival (the English version of his clan name) was assigned as the head of the Grizzly Integration Task Force, which oversaw ways to bring the Terra Novan natives into both the combined UN military and larger human society. After serving as head of the GITF and a stint as a Lt. General in command of Fort Defiance on Terra Nova, he found himself a celebrity in Avalon and appointed the first 'native' Governor-General of the Grizzly Reserve. His ascent into larger human politics has been equally as notable, serving as Kurt von Skandenberg's Defense Minister during the Second Interstellar War and two terms as Avalon's representative to the General Assembly. Philadelphia, Xavier (2163-2229) Xavier Philadelphia was a RB-12C series research android built in Philadelphia and intended for use by the old American Interstellar Survey Command, later rolled into UN Survey Command. He was key to the deciphering of the native Gathar languages during the Liberation of Gathar in the Second Interstellar War, and volunteered to stay behind when it was clear UNSN forces would have to evacuate the planet. He remained on world, assisting native forces and UN Marine Raiders and Special Forces in harrassing Stilor military assets on-world. After the war, Xavier was instrumental in helping the Gathar settle on their new homeworld near the human world of Prospect. He wrote a series of books describing his experiences during the war, including the incident for which he is most famous for during the initial landings on Gathar. Some form of glitch in Xavier's programming allowed him to override his hard-wired Asimov protocols and save a group of Gathar from two Stilor troopers, killing both of them in brutal hand-to-hand combat. Xavier's writings were instrumental in the final passing of the AI Equal Rights Act through the General Assembly. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2225 for his work in resettling the Gathar refugees, the first artificial intelligence to be given the honor. He died in 2229 the victim of a freak groundquake accident on New Gathar. Silva, Francisco (2051-) The head of the Brazilian delegation to the United Nations, including its representative on the High Council. Generally xenophobic, a member of the Supremacist and Militarist blocs of the General Assembly. Has connections to the prospecting and mining corporations Rio Metals and Shell Minerals. Souris, Rachel (1996-) Rachel Souris is the more level headed of the duo famous for their role in First Contact. Born of Georgian Jew and Greek parents, it was Souris would could barely recognize the mangled Ancient Greek the Peregrine survivors attempted to use with the humans they were confronted with. The business-minded muscle behind Mackenzie-Souris, Souris is rather more involved in politics than her husband, currently serving as Asimov's representative to the UN General Assembly. ' ' Váradi, Klara (2018-2219) ''' Secretary-General of the United Nations prior to the Second Interstellar War and Foriegn Minister of the von Skandenburg administration. Largely responsible for the negotiations that led to the formation of the Spinward Treaty Organization. Died in a Stilor deep-penetration raid on Olympia in the waning days of the Second Interstellar War. '''von Skandenburg, Kurt (2118-) Secretary-General of the United Nations during the Second Interstellar War. Signatory of both the Treaty of New Orleans and the Treaty of Sirius. Citizen of the European Union, specifically Munich, Germany. Militiary Individuals Alstead, Ryan (1971-2183) Air Force General in charge of NORAD at the time of First Contact, would eventually transfer to the burgeoning United States Space Navy and spearhead the construction of the United States' first interstellar combat vessels. Seconded to the United Nations Space Force Coordination Agency, would be responsible for the construction of Earth's planetary defense grid. Commanded the defense grid during the First Interstellar War and was responsible for the destruction of much of the Sancordian battlegroup that penetrated the inner Sol system perimeter during the Battle of Mars. Became the first CIC of the unified UNSN after the war, died of natural causes in 2183. The rebuilt and expanded defense grid was renamed the Alstead Grid in his honor. Lyons, James "Jamie" Michael (1996-) The current head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lyons was a young captain in the United States Army at the time of First Contact with the 10th Mountain Division, deployed to the Robert Moses crash site. His cool hand handling the situation as the highest ranking officer, cooperating with Nicholas and Rachel Mackenzie in translating the Peregrine's needs and situation, and his ability to handle the media, put a great deal of attention on the young officer, who would find a steady climb in rank in his future. Serving as a Brigadier General in the First Interstellar War commanding the 82nd Spaceborne, he fought heavily in the Battle of Mars. After the war, Lyons retired from active duty, intent on finding more peaceful pursuits. Less than ten years later, he was back in the service, commanding the Olympus Mons research facilities by 2195 and by 2204 he found himself appointed to the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the first time, representing the various military research establishments. He would rise to prominence during the Second Interstellar War, eventually assuming his position as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs in 2217. Lyons is well known in Spinward Treaty Organization circles, beyond his contacts in the Starshield, as he liased with Malan and Tso military officers extensively during and after the Second Interstellar War. Stewart, Benjamin (2161-)'A native of the American Terra Novan colony of New Manhattan, Ben Stewart served in the Terra Novan Defense Forces during the First Interstellar War as a young ensign aboard the destroyer Perseus. After a Sancordian torpedo destroyed the bridge of the escort, Stewart found himself the senior commissioned officer of a damaged destroyed forced to return to the Sol System on the eve of the largest engagement (to that point) in human history. Unable to find sufficent officers to fully recrew larger damaged ships, let alone a picket destroyer from one of the colonies, Stewart found his ship assigned to cover the flank of the USS ''Texas as she engaged the Sancordian battle group over Earth herself. He performed spectacularly in the engagement, his ship stopping every Sancordian fighter and missile directed at the big battleship's port flank. Promoted to Lieutenant Commander at the end of the war, Stewart found himself advancing quickly on the command track, commanding the destroyer Agrippa before serving as XO on the Red Dragon and then onto commanding the cruisers Agincourt and Tikrit''. Various staff positions followed, eventually culminating in the command of 3rd fleet, aboard UNS ''Venture during the Second Interstellar War. Third Fleet fought in a number of the war's largest engagements, including First Gathar, Yobin, Third and Fifth Cascadia, Wolf 359, and Second Sirius. After the war, Stewart was tasked with examining operational doctrine of Allied fleet formations during the war and coming up with combined operations procedures for the STO. After that, he was assigned to Prospect as CICCORCOM, commander of all United Nations forces in the coreward quarter of UN space. He is currently a full Admiral and viewed by many as the next likely representative of the Navy on the Joint Chiefs. '''Shou, Zhao (2033-) A native of the People's Republic of China, Shou entered the PLA at age nineteen. His aptitude tests demonstrated leadership capability and the ability for the sort of flexible thinking the PLA needed when it was organizing its first Off-World Action Brigades. Shou soon found himself a company commander supervising the construction of the first PLA base in the Chinese colony of Liangzhen on Terra Nova. His rise through the ranks was unsurprising but generally low-key, culminating in a divisional command on Terra Nova during the First Interstellar War. His mobile infantry unit was instrumental in preventing the Sancordians from seizing control of Liangzhen's capital city, whose spaceport was vital in resupplying human military efforts on the world. Since the end of the First War and the consoldidation of the various national militaries, Shou has found himself in gradually greater positions of responsibility. He is currently the Army representative on the UN Joint Chiefs of Staff. Category:Human